New Mexico State’s women’s basketball team was hoping to end a tough stretch against UTEP Saturday, Feb. 21, at home, but the skid continued with a 69-58 loss to the Miners (12-13, 4-10).
The Aggies (8-18, 4-10 Conference USA) extended their losing streak to four games. NM State led 14-11 after the first quarter and only trailed 29-28 at halftime, but the game got away in the second half, and its rivals pulled away to complete a two-game sweep.
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The Aggies entered Saturday at 10th in the CUSA standings, which is the final seed for March’s conference tournament. But both teams are now 4-10 in conference play this season, and the Miners hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, meaning NM State is now in 11th place and on the outside looking in.
The Aggies have four games left in the regular season to climb out of CUSA’s bottom two and qualify for the conference tournament. The first of the four is against Kennesaw State at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26, at home.
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Here are three takeaways from NM State’s defeat on Saturday:
Aggies shoot poorly
NM State produced an impressive mark from 3-point range at 7-for-14. But strangely, this success wasn’t replicated inside the arc.
The Aggies went 13-for-56 on 2-pointers to give them a 33.3% overall mark for the game. Six NM State players shot below 40% from the field, including Saturday starters Lucía Yenes and Emma Cristiano at 1-for-9 and 2-for-6, respectively.
The Aggies never shot above 38% from the field in any quarter and shot 31.3% in both the first and third quarters. NM State made only nine of its 28 shot attempts in the second half.
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UTEP’s big third quarter
The Miners held a small lead at halftime but took control in the next 10 minutes of play.
UTEP outscored NM State 26-14 in the third quarter and shot 62.5% from the field. Portia Adams and Ndack Mbengue each scored seven points in the frame on 3-for-4 shooting.
The Miners’ red-hot third quarter was highlighted by a 15-2 run in the first 3:31 of the frame. That included two 3-pointers for UTEP from Adams and Delma Zita. The Miners led by as much as 16 points in the third at 50-34 with 3:21 left and capped off the quarter with a jumper from Heaven Samayoa-Mathis just before time expired.
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Loes Rozing scored eight points for the Aggies in the third quarter. However, NM State shot just 4-for-12 from the field in the frame, with all four of those made shots coming from Rozing. The Aggies also missed three free throws and both of their 3-point attempts.
Five Miners reach double figures
UTEP shared the wealth in its victory.
Five Miners scored double-digit points against the Aggies, with Zita and Adams leading the way with 14 points each. Mbengue and Samayoa-Mathis each scored 13 points, and Ivane Tensaie added 10 points.
UTEP ended the game with a 46.3% shooting mark, benefitted by its vast improvement on offense in the second half. The Miners shot 51.9% from the field after halftime compared to 40.7% in the first half.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Three reasons behind NMSU women’s basketball’s loss to UTEP in rivalry
